


vows and fireballs

by ofsinnersandsaints



Category: Critical Role (Web Series)
Genre: Canon Compliant, F/M, Fluff, Future Fic, Wedding Fluff, fighting in ruined wedding clothes fluff, marion gets kidnapped during the wedding fluff
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-09-04
Updated: 2019-09-04
Packaged: 2020-10-10 03:31:01
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,726
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/20521235
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/ofsinnersandsaints/pseuds/ofsinnersandsaints
Summary: Fjord and Jester are about to get married when an old foe, long forgotten, attacks and kidnaps Marion in an act of revenge so the couple ditch the battle at Marion's house to rescue the mother of the bride





	vows and fireballs

**Author's Note:**

> blame it on the discord

“Are you nervous?” Beau asked from her place next to Fjord under an archway of pastel flowers.

For the first time since Fjord had met Beau, she wasn’t wearing blue.

“Nope.”

She looked dubious, which he supposed was fair.

“Really?”

“Really.”

“Huh.”

He looked at her then, “Am I supposed to be?”

Beau seemed to seriously consider the question. “I don’t know. Weirdly, that wasn’t part of my studies at the Cobalt. I guess I just figure everyone is nervous before making monumentally life changing decisions.”

Fjord could understand that, but nothing about what he was about to do felt particularly life changing. It was like the first time he’d stepped on a boat; there was a rightness to standing here in Marion’s garden, waiting for Jester to come through those glass doors and walk down the aisle.

For the first time in his life, he didn’t question his decisions or why he was making them.

“You know,” Beau started as Fjord stared at the doors in question, wondering how much longer he’d have to wait before he was married. Would it be rude if he just went upstairs and got her? “I was looking at the seating chart for the reception and I happened to notice something.”

Fjord pressed his lips together in an effort not to smile or laugh, because he knew what she was about to say. “Yeah?”

“Yeah. Keg and Reani are sitting at the same table. Next to each other.”

“Really?” Fjord asked, feigning surprise and didn’t even try to be convincing about it. “That’s weird.”

“Fuck you, Fjord.”

“Wasn’t me,” he told her, finally laughing and holding his hands up in surrender. “Jester thought it would be funny.”

“I’m going to kill her.”

“Please don’t, I’d at least like to make it to the honeymoon.” Fjord glanced up at the setting sun and figured they had to be close. He felt like he’d been standing at the altar for an hour. Caduceus was starting to grow more flowers on the archway and he was pretty sure that tree hadn’t been there a minute ago. “And just be glad I talked her out tracking down your ex from before the Cobalt.”

Beau’s eyes went comically large. “She wouldn’t.”

“She wanted to,” Fjord informed her. “I managed to convince her not to, but she was half a second from scrying on her and sending her an invite.”

“Fuck, man. I owe you.”

“You really do,” he agreed because the argument-Jester had insisted it was a ‘debate’-had gone on for nearly an hour. He rested his hand on the hilt of his sword, “I was thinking-“

Beau cut him off, her hand coming up to grip his shoulder to the point he thought it was going to bruise. “What the hell, Beau?”

“Do you hear that?” she asked, her eyes looking up at the sky above them.

“Hear wh-“ but he didn’t get a chance to finish the question because Beau was tackling him to the ground as a large sound exploded around them.

Not just sound he realized as he sat up, ears ringing.

The garden had exploded.

Flowers and people were scattered everywhere and a portion of the house was on fire.

“Jester,” Fjord whispered, getting up and running towards the house, the echoes of Beau’s warning a dim sound as he ran flat out towards the doors and up the stairs.

He could hear people screaming for help, and a part of him was pulled towards those sounds-he’d been charged with protecting people, with protecting the whole of nature, but his world came first.

And Jester was his world.

“Jester!” he yelled as he climbed the stairs and skidded at the door of her childhood bedroom. “Jester,” he called again, pushing the door open.

“I’m here,” he heard her call and his knees went weak with relief as he saw that she was okay.

“You can’t be here!” Nott was yelling from the balcony doors, her crossbow at the ready. “You can’t see the bride before the wedding, it’s bad luck!”

“I think we’ve passed that point,” Jester argued reasonably. Her hair was falling out of the pins a little bit, dust and debris covered her dress; she was so gorgeous Fjord was pretty certain his heart stopped. “What was that?”

“Fireball,” Nott answered. “I recognize it as something Caleb’s done before.”

“Someone attacked the house?” she asked, disbelief coloring her voice. “On my wedding day!?”

Fjord walked across the room, some of the windows had been blown in and he could smell the acrid sent of smoke floating into the room. The fire was close. “We have to get out of here, Jessie.”

“Who would do this?” she demanded as she opened her armoire and took out her axe and component pouch, tying it around her waist where the Traveler’s symbol already hung. She’d been hoping he’d show up, she’d also been hoping the Gentleman would come, but thus far neither one had made an appearance.

Either way, Marion was supposed to be the one to walk her down the aisle.

“Where’s your mother?” Fjord asked, realizing Marion wasn’t in the room.

“I-“ she looked around the room, her brow lowering in confusion. “I thought she was here? Nott, did you see where my mama went?”

“She got a note,” Nott remembered, her eyes still focused on the garden outside where they could hear the shouts of people asking for help and other people responding that they were coming. He recognized a handful of voices and knew that, for now, things were covered outside. “Stepped outside and said she’d be right back.”

“Fjord,” she stepped towards him for the first time and wrapped her tiny fingers around his forearm. The women in his life were constantly bruising him. “I don’t like this.”

“I don’t like it either,” he agreed. “Nott, you got this? Can you check on the others?”

“Go, I’ll message you when I know everyone is okay.”

Grabbing her hand with his Fjord let Jester out into the hall just another explosion rocked the house. “Fuck,” he bit out as they were thrown against the wall. “Shit, fuck.”

“Agreed,” Jester murmured as she hung on to him. “This a lot of magic.”

He heard the unanswered question in the statement, who would want to put this much energy into attacking them? “I mean, a lot of people hate us.”

“I’m going to cast sending and see if I can find Mama.”

“Not here,” he argued, pulling her down the stairs and into the dining room where Marion had sung the night before for their rehearsal dinner. He led her to the corner of the room and unsheathed his sword so he could protect her while she did her magic. “Okay, send it, but be quick.”

Jester nodded and quickly cast the spell, counting on her own fingers because Fjord was watching the room to make sure no one came out while she was in the magic. “Mama? Where are you? Are you okay? Someone’s attacking the house. I’m with Fjord and we’re okay, where are you? Are you okay?”

Fjord waited patiently for Jester to tell him what Marion had said, but he could hear footsteps above them. They needed to move sooner rather than later.

“Jessie?”

“He’s got her,” she answered, her voice panicked. “I didn’t even think-it’s been so long.”

Fjord lowered his sword and turned to face Jester whose face had gone pale blue. “Whose got her?”

“Sharpe.”

It took him a minute to remember the name; the powerful and embarrassed lord who Jester had humiliated by locking him out on a balcony in nothing but a girdle in full view of the city. He’d wanted her executed, but that had been years ago.

Surely he couldn’t have been holding a grudge this dangerous for that long.

“That’s absurd.”

“It’s the truth,” she told him as he put a hand on her shoulder before she could say more.

“I know it’s the truth. I believe you, I’m saying he’s absurd.”

“Mama says she’ll be okay but-“

“We’ll go get her,” Fjord assured Jester. “Do you know where she is? Where he’s taking her?”

Jester nodded and took his sword from him, cutting at the frothy fabric of her skirt till he could see the pink shoes and stockings she’d had underneath. There might be something seriously wrong with him, because he didn’t think he’d ever seen anything so sexy in his entire life.

He was still staring when Jester handed him back the sword. “Fjord!”

Bringing himself back to the present he took his weapon and swung it once out of habit, loosening up his wrist for the battle that was certainly to come.

“EVERYONE’S OKAY ARE YOU OKAY WHAT ARE YOU DOING? YOU CAN REPLY TO THIS MESSAGE.”

Fjord winced at Nott’s magical shout, “We’re fine but someone’s got Marion. We’re going after her.”

“We’ll hold the fort here,” Caleb’s voice chimed in from the air. “There’s a handful of people attacking the house but we can handle them.”

“Sounds good,” Fjord replied and then relayed the conversation to his bride-to-be. “You okay with this?”

Jester looked uncertain, lifting one shoulder in a kind of shrug. “This wasn’t in the wedding vows.”

“What are you talking about? I have a whole paragraph about rescuing kidnapped parents in my vows, you don’t?”

She smiled, which had been his intent, and together they stepped out of the big house and ran in the direction of Sharpe’s house because he was too stupid to have a hideout of any kind.

“My vows had a thing about piracy,” Jester said between breaths as they turned a corner.

“No more piracy?” Fjord clarified, and her grin was wicked when she looked over at him.

“More piracy,” she corrected. “At least once a year I want Captain Tusktooth make a return to the seas and take down at least one ship. The guys can come if they want.”

Fjord couldn’t believe he was laughing as he ran down main thoroughfare in the hopes of rescuing his soon to be mother-in-law on his wedding day, but wasn’t that the kind of life he’d signed up for when he’d proposed to Jester?

“Fair enough.”

“There, that’s the house.”

The building Jester pointed to was slate gray, without an once of color or style to it. “That’s one ugly ass house.”

Jester mumbled something under breath, a spell, but couldn’t remember which one. “Mama’s in the basement.” Locate creature. “Do we have a plan?”

“Do we ever?” Fjord asked her seriously. “No moths, though.”

“No,” she agreed and there was something incredibly dangerous about her as she stared at the house which contained her mother. Fjord knew better than anyone exactly what Jester Lavorre was capable of, but he’d bet all his money Sharpe had no idea what he’d brought on himself. “But when we see him, I get the first shot.”

Fjord took her hand and kissed her knuckles, “After you, sweetheart.”

Jester walked across the street and together they stepped into the shadows created by the setting sun and slipped into an open window and on nearly silent feet made their way to the basement door where they could hear Marion viciously mocking Sharpe from the room below.

“Quiet!” an unknown male voice shouted, probably Sharpe himself.

“Let me go, Sharpe. You’re making me miss my daughter’s wedding.”

Fjord was impressed at how steady she sounded, considering she hadn’t been out of her house in close to a decade.

“Your daughter is going to be dead before the night is out, the little bitch is going to pay for what she did to me.”

“I said,” Marion began, her voice taking on a quality which made Fjord feel a little queasy. “Let me go. You will untie me, and your comrades will stand down as I leave the house.”

There was a shift in the air, Fjord could recognize powerful magic when it moved around him.

“Your mother has magic?” Fjord whispered.

“Of course she does.” Fjord rolled his eyes at Jester’s tone because how was he supposed to know if no one told him? “She doesn’t use it very often anymore, but you can always catch a bit of it when she sings.”

Well, that certainly explained a lot.

There was a creak on the stairs and Fjord pulled Jester back and away from the doorway, standing in front of her. Not that she needed his protection, but he’d rather take the hits than risk her going down. He might be able to heal, but his magic had nothing on hers.

Fjord briefly wished for his shield, raised his sword, and prepared to strike as soon as the person stepped through.

“Mama!” Jester cried, pushing past Fjord to hug her mother. “You’re okay!”

“I’m perfectly fine,” Marion assured her daughter, her smile completely calm and unworried. “I told you I would be, but we should go. The charm I cast on Sharpe and his friends won’t last long and I’d like to get the guards here before he comes to his senses. Jester! What happened to your dress?”

Fjord sheathed his sword as Jester explained.

Everything was going to be fine.

“I mean, we can always just do it another day,” Beau suggested pragmatically as the Mighty Nein assessed the damage of the ruined wedding décor.

They were all in various states of disarray; when they’d gotten back with Marion the fight was beginning to die down and Beau was the only one who really looked the worse for wear. Her charcoal gray clothes were cut and splattered with the blood of Sharpe’s men.

Both Reani and Keg were watching her with avid interest, but Beau had yet to notice that.

Caleb and Nott only looked like they’d fallen in some dirt and given enough time would probably be presentable, but Fjord’s clothes were filthy from Beau throwing him to the ground and Jester still wore her cut up dress.

Not exactly the classiest of wedding attire for any of them.

“Jessie?”

She scrunched her nose and studied the damage. “I don’t mind waiting if you don’t.”

Fjord thought about waiting, about trying to plan this all again and getting all his friends and family in one place for a second time. Sure they could just do it all tomorrow, but he’d already waited long enough to marry Jester. He really didn’t want to wait another day.

“Fuck it, let’s do this now.”

Cheers rang out from his friend and from the people nearby who could hear and in a flurry of movement Nott began corralling people near the raised stone patio, Marion standing just inside the house.

She’d been all confidence in Sharpe’s house, but the moment they’d started walking home he could see the terror take over. They barely made it back to the house, Marion’s knuckles nearly white by the time she crossed the threshold.

Jester had made a quiet, sad sound as Marion closed the front door and ceremoniously locked it behind her.

Fjord imagined it would be a long time before she left again.

“You ready, partner?” Jester asked as she sidled up beside him. Caduceus waited at the broken windows, beneath the blackened walls of the second story, a new archway of flowers already growing around him.

He laughed at the term and held out his arm to her.

They’d walk down the aisle together.

“I’ve got some stuff in my vows about loving you forever.”

Her smile went soft as she looked up at him, “I might have written down some things which made Beau cry when she read them. About never letting you go and fighting for you for the rest of forever.”

Fjord swallowed back his own tears and moved to take a step forward but Jester held him back. When he looked down at her she was glancing at the crowd and then back at him, keeping her voice low enough he had to lean forward to hear it.

“There was also some sex stuff, but Beau convinced me to take that part out and save it for later.”

And with that, Fjord and Jester walked down the aisle on a laugh, covered in bruises and dust and victory, with promises in their heart they fully intended to keep.


End file.
